System for accessing a large number of menu items using a zoned menu bar

ABSTRACT

A system that includes a pop-up graphical user interface that includes menu bars overlapping marking menu zones. The interface pops up at the current position of the cursor when the space bar is held down. The menu bars are positioned around a central marking zone with the common menu bars located above the central zone and task specific menu bars located below the central zone. The common application menu bar is positioned outer most and the common window menu bar is located inner most. The menu bars are sized in a “stair-step” pattern and the commands therein are left and right justified to fill the menu bar evenly. The menu bar menu items are accessed just like menu bar items typically found at the top of windows. The menu bars mimic the menu bars that a user may need to use during tasks that users typically perform using the menu bars found in application windows. The zones are divided into a central zone and four outer zones where user customizable marking menus are activated when a mouse button is held down while the cursor is in one of the zones.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 11/063,865filed Feb. 23, 2005 now U.S. Pat. No. 7,555,726; which is a continuationof application Ser. No. 10/178,026, filed Jun. 24, 2002, now U.S. Pat.No. 6,915,492; which is a continuation of application Ser. No.09/119,654, filed Jul. 21, 1998 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,414,700, all ofwhich are incorporated by reference herein.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention is directed to a graphical user interface thatpresents the user with a large number of menu items and, moreparticularly, to an interface that provides marking menu featurescombined with menu bar features where the menu bars spatially mimic themenu bars of the windows of the application and where the features allowfast access to a large number of menu items.

2. Description of the Related Art

Today's three-dimensional (3D) computer animation and designapplications are professional tools that present many challenging userinterface requirements. First and foremost, these systems allow complexand sophisticated controls over 3D data and the behavior of 3D data overtime. This sophisticated functionality results in an application withhundreds of commands. Professional users also require efficient accessto commands since they may spend a large number of hours operating theapplication under strict deadlines. Therefore, even small performanceimprovements (like menu selection speed) can dramatically affect userefficiency and their perceived efficiency of the application. Anothermajor design requirement for this class of application is to reduce thecomplexity presented by the user interface whenever possible. The natureof data and the operations on the data is, by itself, complex. Adding ina complicated user interface would only further increase the user'scognitive load. These challenges produce three basic problems for thetraditional graphic user interface (GUI) which are discussed below.

A typical animation and design application has more than 1000 commandswhich can be found in the menu bars. The number of commands in theseapplications is expected to increase as newer versions are produced. Atthe very most 20 pull-down menus can be placed in a menu bar that spanthe entire length of a high resolution screen (1280 pixels across). Withmore than 1000 commands this results in menus that on average have 50items each in them. In practice, this results in information overload.What is needed is an interface that provides access to a large number ofcommands without subjecting the user such an overload.

Today's users want fast access to frequently used commands. Intraditional graphical user interfaces (GUIs), hot-keys, or menuaccelerators, are used for the frequently used functions. However, inmost design/animation shops the set of frequently used commands variesbetween users and from task to task. Furthermore, there is a limit tothe number of “fast” hot-keys. Some hot-key combinations are hard tophysically articulate (for example, ctrl-alt-P). Other hot-keys are hardto remember (“Why is ctrl-d mapped to “Create IK Joint?”). Ultimately,as the menu structures grow in size, it becomes hard to represent thestructure of menus in hot-key mappings. What is needed is a fast accessinterface that allows easy variation in the frequently used commands.

To reduce the complexity of the user interface, it is preferred that asingle interaction technique be available for accessing all thecommands. In a traditional GUI, large numbers of commands are sometimesabsorbed by placing them in different spots (for example, different toolpallets, different pop-up menus, etc., depending on where you click orwhat button is pressed). The functionality in some animation/designapplications is sufficiently complex that it is important for commandsto be grouped by function not by interaction technique. For example,typically GUIs place functional modes into tool bars and one-shotactions into the menus. However, from a functional point of view aparticular tool and action may be closely related (for example, the“create curve with points” tool and the “attach curves” action). What isneeded is an interface that can use a single interaction technique yetallows grouping by function.

It is also important to provide a menu access technique that unifiesnovice and expert behaviors. In a traditional GUI, novice and expertoperation of the interface can be dramatically different. For example, anovice user may exclusively use only the menu bar while an expert mayalmost exclusively use hot-keys. The radical difference between thesetwo behaviors makes graduating from novice to expert behavior anexplicit (and extra) effort. What is needed is a menu access interfacewhere novice operation is a rehearsal of expert behavior. Essentially,what is needed is for novices and experts to use the same menu accesstechnique perhaps differing only in speed of operations.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide an interface thatallows access to a large number of commands without subjecting the userto information overload.

It is another object of the present invention to provide fast access andeasy variation in the frequently used commands.

It is also an object of the present invention to provide a singleinteraction technique allowing grouping by function.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide an interfacethat is used in essentially the same way by novices and experts.

It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a displaythat mimics the appearance and interaction of the typical menu bars.

The above objects can be attained by a system that includes a pop-upgraphical user interface that includes menu bars and marking menu zoneswhere the menu bars overlap the zones. The menu bars are positionedaround a central marking zone with the application menu bar positionedoutermost and the window menu bar located innermost and both on an upperside and task menu bars located on the lower side. The menu bars arearranged in a “stair step” pattern and commands are spread uniformly orjustified within each menu bar. The zones form a visual square and aredivided into a central zone and four outer zones where user customizablemarking menus are activated when a mouse button is held down while thecursor is in one of the zones.

These together with other objects and advantages, which will besubsequently apparent, reside in the details of construction andoperation as more fully hereinafter described and claimed, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof, whereinlike numerals refer to like parts throughout.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts a zoned menu bar interface according to the presentinvention.

FIG. 2 depicts a specific pop-down menu of the invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates how the interface of the present invention ispreferably organized.

FIG. 4 depicts a recent command pull down menu of the invention.

FIG. 5 illustrates a marking menu accessible through a menu bar menuitem.

FIG. 6 illustrates the hardware of the present invention.

FIG. 7 shows the flow of control in the present invention.

FIG. 8 shows the five marking menu zones of the present invention in an“x” cross.

FIG. 9 shows four marking menu zones.

FIG. 10 shows a “+” cross shape.

FIG. 11 illustrates overlapping zones according to the presentinvention.

FIG. 12 depicts an alternate interface with additional north and southzone spaces produced by warping the menu bars.

FIG. 13 depicts an alternate interface with additional north and southzone spaces produced by removing a portion of the inner most menu bars.

FIG. 14 illustrates an alternate arrangement of the menu bars.

FIG. 15 shows a further alternate of the interface.

FIG. 16 depicts interface transparency.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The zoned menu bar interface of the present invention is an interactiveinterface which supports fast access to a large number of menus itemsutilizing the user interface metaphor of multiple menu bars which mimicthe appearance and interaction of traditional menu bars. It also unifiesaccess to menu bar items and user customizable marking menus. Theinvention includes: a method of accessing multiple menu barssimultaneously; a single and simple access method for simultaneouspresentation and access to user customizable marking menus and menu baritems; a method of utilizing zones of the screen relative to the cursorfor accessing multiple marking menu sets; and a method for creating avisually pleasing layout of menu bars and marking menu zones that alsosupport efficient access.

The present invention allows the presentation and access to over 1000menu commands, where this number of commands would overload thetraditional graphic user interface (GUI) menu bar. The inventionprovides fast command access without having to resort to hot-keys. Theinvention allows the users to create their own marking menus which areused for fast command access.

The graphic user interface (GUI) of the present invention, as depictedin FIG. 1, is a pop-up zoned menu bar interface 10 which includes menubars 12-24 and marking menu zones 26-34 divided by zone boundaries36-44. The interface 10 can be called a “Hotbox” as it is box shaped andfunctions rapidly. The zoned menu bar interface 10 pops-up under thecursor 46 when the interface 10 is selected. The menu bars 12-24 areused like the menu bars that appear at the top of typical windows typeinterfaces. For example, when the cursor is placed on a menu item and amouse button is depressed a linear menu (or a radial menu) for that itempops up. The marking menu zones 26-34 exist in areas that liebetween/outside the menu bars 12-24. The marking menu zones 26-34 alsooperate like the marking menus found in a typical marking menuinterface. For example, a marking menu item is selected when a stroke ismade by the cursor when it is in one of the marking menu zones. Notethat the menu marking for a zone is not activated when the cursor iswithin the zone but over a menu bar, the menu for the menu bar itemunder the cursor is activated.

The zoned menu bar interface 10 works as follows. To display theinterface 10, the user holds down a key on the key board, preferably thespace-bar (with their non-dominant hand), when the cursor is in adisplay window. Other keys, such as the “h” key, could be used and otherdevices than the key board, such as one of the inputs of a mouse, couldalso be used to select the interface 10. The interface 10 “instantly”appears when the key is depressed, centered at the location of thecursor 46. The “rows” of the interface 10 (see FIG. 1) behave liketraditional menu bars where an individual menu 60 can be popped downlike traditional menu bar menus by moving the mouse (with the dominanthand) so the cursor 62 is over a menu label 64 and pressing any mousebutton, as depicted in FIG. 2.

Each row of the zoned menu bar interface 10 preferably corresponds to aparticular set of menus, as depicted in FIG. 3. The top row 70, isreferred to as the “common” row and preferably corresponds to menuscommonly found in most applications' main window menu bar (e.g., File,Edit, . . . ). The next row 72 down, called the panel row (or windowpane row), preferably shows the items in the menu bar for the window inwhich the cursor currently resides. Below the center row 74 of theinterface 10 are rows of menus, called the task menu set, which arepreferably specific to certain computer tasks, such as graphics or wordprocessing tasks. The user can customize the order of these menu bars,particularly the task set, so that the most often used bar is closer tothe center. The center row 74 includes a bar 84 with the menu label“Recent Commands” which when selected, as depicted in FIG. 4, preferablydisplays a list 100 of recent commands issued by the user and allows auser to repeat a command without having to relocate the command in theinterface 10. The other menu 86 in the center row 74 (see FIG. 3),“Hotbox Controls” allows the user to control which rows of the interface10 are displayed. This menu 86 is preferably a marking menu. In FIG. 1,all the rows of the interface 10 are displayed. Using the marking menu86 a user can quickly display or hide specific rows. FIG. 5 shows anexample of changing the display of rows where a marking stroke 106 hasbeen made toward the “Modeling” selection 108.

Besides presenting the user with rows of menus the zoned menu barinterface 10 divides the entire screen into five zones (see FIG. 3):center 90, north 92, south 94, east 96 and west 98. Each of the thesezones can have a different user customizable marking menu which can beaccessed simply by pressing down a mouse button when the cursor is inthe zone. The use of marking menus provides fast and efficient commandaccess compared to traditional linear menus.

The zoned menu bar interface 10 remains displayed as long as thespecified key, such as the space-bar, is kept pressed. This allows auser to perform a series of commands without having to re-invoke theinterface 10. Once the specific key is released the interface 10disappears.

The interface 10 (see FIG. 3) is optimized for menu access speed bysupporting multiple menu access speeds. The fastest level of access issupported by the center zone 90 since the user does not have to move thecursor to invoke the menu—the center zone pops up under the cursor sothe user can immediately select from the center marking menus. Thedirection zones (north 92, south 94, east 96 and west 98) are the nextfastest to access. In this case, the user has to move the cursor to theouter zone but the zone is very large therefore movement to the zone canbe performed very quickly. The menu bars (for example, 70) provide thenext fastest access. Accessing the menu bars is slightly slower than themarking zones since the cursor must be moved to a much smaller area.Even within the menu bars, the menu bars that are closer to the centerof interface 10, such as 72 and 76, can be accessed more quickly thanmenu bars on the outside, such as 82.

The present invention is implemented in a computer system, such asdepicted in FIG. 6, which includes a computer 110, such as the O2available from Silicon Graphics, Inc. The computer 110 includes thecomputer readable media storage, such as disk storage, suitable forstoring the processes of the present invention. Such media, as well asdownloading over a network, such as a packet switched network, can beused to distribute the processes of the invention to customers. Adisplay 112 is provided for displaying the zoned menu bar interface 10.A keyboard 114, or other input device, as discussed above and used forselecting the interface 10, is also provided. A mouse 116, or otherinput device, such as a stylus and tablet, that can control the positionof a cursor, is used for selecting items in the interface.

The process 30 of the present invention begins with the system looking32 for the trigger key being activated, as depicted in FIG. 7. When thetrigger key, such as the space bar, is held down as the activationsignal, the system first produces 34 the marking menu zones on thedisplay centered at the current position of the cursor. This operationis described in greater detail in the pseudo code of the attachedAppendix. Next, the system overlays 36 the menu bars on top of thezones. The preferred layout of the menu bars will be discussed ingreater detail later herein and additional details concerning theprocess of creating the layout can also be found in the Appendix. Oncethe zoned menu bar interface 10 has been created, the system looks forand handles 38 an interaction. That is, if the user positions the cursorover one of the menu bar's items and it is selected by the action of amouse key, the menu for that item is displayed and an appropriateconventional menu action is taken based on further selections, etc. Ifthe cursor is in one of the marking zones and a marking menu is selectedby the action of the mouse key, the system performs appropriate markingmenu actions (see for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,689,667 incorporated byreference herein). Once the interaction is complete, the system removes40 the zones and menu bars.

The preferred design of the interface 10 is depicted in FIG. 1. However,other designs are possible and these will be discussed below.

The invention has one goal of increasing the number of the marking menusavailable to the user and capturing all the menu-items in complexapplications such as animation packages. Traditionally, a user canaccess marking menus by holding down both the shift and ctrl key andpressing a mouse button to pop-up a marking menu. Each mouse buttontraditionally has a different marking menu associated with it. If theuser configures each menu to have eight items, this results in fastaccess to 24 items. The present invention improves upon this situationby using the space-bar instead of the awkward “shift-control”, producesthe same menu for each mouse button (to avoid “wrong mouse button”errors and to support use with a tablet and stylus device instead of amouse), and provides access to many more items. The zoned menu barinterface 10 of FIG. 1 is capable of presenting to the user more than1200 menu items. The invention provides some of the large number of menuitems by using different “menu zones” to access different menus asopposed to different mouse button or trigger keys. The inventionpreferably uses five zones 50-58 as shown in FIG. 8 (see also FIG. 1)arranged in an “x” cross pattern. Four zones 60-66 could also be used asdepicted in FIG. 9. The cross pattern could also be arranged like a “+”cross pattern as depicted in FIG. 10 where the zones are arranged inquadrants. The center zone in FIG. 10 also need not be used like in FIG.9. The invention could also have overlapping zones, such as the zones70-90 as depicted in FIG. 11. The zoned menu bar interface 10 of FIG. 1is a type of overlapping zoned interface where some of the zones aremenu bars and some are marking menu zones. That is, the basicconfiguration of the interface 10 of the present invention is that ofoverlapping zones.

To organize a large number of menu items, the present invention definesa high-level meta-grouping of the commands by functional sets. Forexample, one grouping which is preferable for animation and 3D designapplications is: Modeling, Animation, Dynamics, and Rendering. Thegrouping preferably follows the high level workflow of the particularsoftware package users. A trade off with this grouping approach is thatusers may have to switch between command sets if the GUI cannot presentall of the sets at once to the user. The traditional GUI menu bar at thetop of the typical screen could not handle as many as 1000 commands. Thepresent invention provides access to multiple menu bars and a means(“Hotbox Controls” 16/86—see FIG. 5) to switch between them Thetraditional menu bar in the main window is implemented by having thecommon menu set (70 & 72) displayed followed by one of the functionalsets (one of 76, 78, 80 & 82). Switching functional sets is accomplishedby the pop-up menu containing the four functional task set names (seeFIG. 5) which was traditionally located directly underneath the mainmenu bar. The concepts of functional sets, multiple menu bars, andswitching between these is a guiding metaphor for the present invention.

To support learning, the interface 10 is designed to have the commandset rows match the menu organizations in the traditional GUI menu bar.

Even though the interface 10 can house and present all of more than 1000command functions to the user, users typically do not want to see all ofthe command sets all of the time. The interface 10, as previouslymentioned, includes a special marking menu, the “Hotbox Controls” (see86—FIG. 3) to allow the user to quickly toggle the visibility ofindividual rows or to specify the viewing of specific rows (which hidesall other rows).

Besides the main menu bar, each of the application views and editors ina typical graphics application has an associated set of commands thatwork in the given view. The interface 10 provides access to these menusas well. The “pane specific” row (see 72 in FIG. 3) in the interface 10changes its contents depending on the position of the cursor withindifferent views at the time the interface 10 is invoked. This designprovides context specific access to command sets which automaticallychange as the user changes views.

With the layout of the interface 10, there is a design tension betweenspeed of access (making the menu rows tall and wide) versus the overallsize of the interface 10 (which interferes with seeing the underlyingapplication data). We know from Fitts' law (see Mackenzie & Buxton,(1992) Extending Fitts' Law To Two-dimensional Tasks. Proceedings Of ACMChi '92 Conference On Human Factors In Computing Systems, 219-226) thatspeed of target acquisition is a function of the distance to the targetfrom the cursor and the width of the target menu bar. In the interface10, the width of the target is broken up into two components: the lengthand height of the menu label. To provide fast access, the height of themenu rows is increased as compared to a regular menu bar which is thetrue effective width of the Fitts' Law targets of the invention whilenot distorting the visual appearance of the interface.

The invention uses a pop-up design, and two strategies could be used forthe pop-up. First, the interface 10 could pop-up centered around thecurrent cursor location. This preserves the relative locations of themenu rows and menu labels. Also, it guarantees that the center markingmenu zone will be active for invoking a marking menu. Alternatively, theinterface 10 could be popped up at a specified location, such as thecenter of the screen. This design would provide a constant, absolutepositioning of menu items as well as marking menu zones. In terms ofcursor travel distances, this alternative approach is more costly thanthe first approach where the menus come to the user instead of the usergoing to the menus. As a result, the first alternative is preferred.

Many pop-up interfaces are designed to dismiss themselves when a userselects an item. The interface 10 is designed to handle issuing multiplecommands in a single posting by keeping the interface 10 displayed aslong as the specific selection key (the space bar) is depressed andallowing the user to continue to select items. This provides a moreefficient interaction (often saving mouse clicks and cursor traveltime). Invoking multiple marking menus is also facilitated with thisapproach especially when working in a single marking zone.

The preferred interface defines five marking zones (north, south, east,west and center), as depicted in FIG. 3, to support quick access to alarge number of commands. Within each zone, a marking menu set can bedefined for each of the three mouse buttons. This provides the user with15 marking menu sets for each zone. While this may seem a bit excessive,it is a reasonable size as users have a preference for single levelmenus. Less than 15 can be configured and typically five default markingmenu sets, one for each of the zones is sufficient.

The center marking menu zone (see 90 in FIG. 3) has been designed forthe quickest access as it does not require any cursor travel before auser can start issuing a mark. To reach the east 96 and west 98 zonesquickly, a sufficiently large space is provided between the center zone90 and the specific menu items 84 and 86, so that the cursor may easilyand efficiently be positioned in the east and west zones. To reach thenorth 92 and south 94 zones, the user either has to carefully positionthe cursor between the menu bars in the north/south directions or moverthe cursor beyond the menu bars in the north/south direction. This slowsthe access speed of the north/south marking zones as compared to theeast west zones. To solve this problem the menu bars can be warped, asdepicted in FIG. 12, to provide spaces 102 and 104 for accessing themarking menu zones 92 and 94. It is also possible to provide spaces 106and 108 by carving away a portion of the menu bars 72 and 76 as depictedin FIG. 13.

The present invention provides “one-stop-shopping” for users where thecommands are organized by function not by interaction style (e.g., modedtools are in the toolbox while one-shot actions are in the menus).Placing the tools into the menus has a side benefit of using text labelsinstead of icons to describe a command function.

To simplify the interaction model, the present invention defines asingle mechanism for accessing the menus. It is possible to pop-up menusunder the right mouse button, however, users typically find thisfatiguing and want to use the left mouse button. The modifier keys(ctrl, alt, shift) are typically assigned as standard keys for managingselection and camera controls. The invention uses the space bar for itsease of access. Using a single key to access menus within theapplication provides gestural unification and simplification to theoverall interaction model.

A variety of layouts can be considered for the menu sets (e.g., columnbased, cluster based, etc.). The invention uses a row based approachwhich offers a compact layout, and visually reflected the common menubar concept.

The interface of the present invention provides a compact layout thatvisually reflects or mimics the menu bars. Presenting multiple menu rowsto the user without overwhelming them is a major challenge. It ispossible to present the rows left justified, as depicted in FIG. 14.However, a center justification approach reduces the travel distance tothe various menus as depicted in FIG. 15. FIG. 15 also illustrates thatthe central zone need not be square but can be oval (or round).Graphically the center justification can be hard to visually parse andidentify command sets based on row length. To help with this problemeach menu bar row can be colored separately. However, some applicationshave only 3 colors available in the overlay window (which is thegraphics image plane used to display the invention “over top” of theapplication window) and this limits this option for visual separation.Instead, the interface 10 is preferably laid out with an algorithm whichis called “stair-step justify”. In the approach, to give horizontalvisual balance the number of and/or space occupied by the menu barsabove and below the central zone 90 should be approximately the same. Toattain vertical visual balance following algorithm is used:

Determine longest menubar (where length = total character width of allmenubar items for a given menubar plus a default inter-item spacing)Mark longest menubar as Done curLen = longest menubar length stepSize =sizing constant (e.g., 25 pixels) While all menubars are not Done { Foreach undone menubar {   if (length menubar >= curLen − stepSize)    Growcurrent menubar to curLen by adding spacing between    menubar items   Mark current menubar Done  }  curLen = curLen − stepSize; }Horizontally center all menubar rows relative to cursor position.

See the Appendix for more detail. This provides visual order to theinterface 10, as depicted in FIG. 1. In addition, a border is placedaround the rows to further reinforce their menu bar likeness and toreduce visual interference from the application data. The row ordering(Common, Pane specific, Interface specific, Animation, Modeling,Dynamics, Rendering) is preserved and the interface specific row 16 ismade visually distinct to provide a visual grouping of rows.

The five marking menu zones are delimited by a cross (X) where thevisual the length of the lines for the boundaries 36, 38, 40 and 42 (seeFIG. 1) keeps the cross lengths balanced above and below the Hotboxspecific row 74, such that the bounding box of the cross is a square.Other lengths produce noticeable visual distinctions that can bedistracting.

To reduce the obscuring of the underlying application data, theinterface 10 employs conventional transparency, as depicted in FIG. 17,to allow the user to see through the interface 10. This is especiallyuseful as the interface 10 can be quite large when all of the rows arebeing displayed. The user can adjust the degree of transparency fromfully opaque to clear.

When the interface 10 is drawn with 100% transparency (i.e., clear), agreat deal of interference can occur between the textual menu labels andthe underlying application data. To reduce this interference, theinterface 10 uses conventional anti-alias fonts which surrounds eachcharacter with an “opposite” contrasting color to ensure its legibility.

Because the interface 10 is capable of showing all the traditional menubars as well as any specialized ones needed by the user, the traditionalGUI menu bars (both the main menu bar and the pane specific menu bars)can be hidden to free up more screen space for their application data.This can be a very significant saving in space if there are many windowsdisplayed with a menu bar in each one.

When displaying the interface near the edge of the screen, the systemdoes not warp the position of the interface 10 if portions of the falloff the screen. This is preserves the center marking menu zone. The menubars themselves can be shifted to one side of the central zone as theedge of the screen is encountered.

The interface 10 can be viewed as a collection of menu bars and, as aresult, users expect the same degree of functionality as traditionalmenu bars. Conventional menu bars provide functions of postingindividual menus, browsing multiple menus within a single dragoperation, the ability to tear-off menus, and offering roll-over helpfor individual menu items. The current embodiment of the invention doesnot provide all of these function but these functions could be easilyadded.

The present invention has been described with text descriptors beingused within the menu bars. However, icons could be substituted for thetext descriptors. The present invention has been described with respectto the menu bars being oriented horizontally. The bars couldalternatively be oriented vertically or in any other type of layout thatstill reflects the conceptual relationships of menu bars and menu itemsto one another. Another variation is zones that change dynamically,e.g., the first time the hotbox pops up it has zones arranged in an “x”.The next time it is displayed it has the zones arrange in a “+”.

Zones don't have to be in a cross pattern; e.g., a series of verticalstrips can be used. Other GUI elements or interaction can occur in theinterface. For example, a GUI tool shelf could be displayed in additionto menu bars or the shelf could pop-up in a marking zone. Otherinteractions could take place in the zones: marks in a zone could berecognized by the system as handwriting, graphical sliders could appearin the zones; status information could appear in the zones. Ultimatelyany GUI interaction elements or element could be simultaneouslydisplayed with the interface. A variation of this would be GUI elementsthat only display when the cursor is moved into a particular zone.Further, zones do not necessarily have to cover the entire screen. Therecould be gaps or holes between or in the zones to allow a user to clickon data in the application windows underlying the interface.

The many features and advantages of the invention are apparent from thedetailed specification and, thus, it is intended by the appended claimsto cover all such features and advantages of the invention which fallwithin the true spirit and scope of the invention. Further, sincenumerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilledin the art, it is not desired to limit the invention to the exactconstruction and operation illustrated and described, and accordinglyall suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, failingwithin the scope of the invention.

APPENDIX Display Marking Menu Zones( ) ----------------------------Divide screen into zones based on cursor position Display zoneboundaries Overlay Multiple Menu bars( ) --------------------------- Getlist of active menu bar sets Layout Menusets( ) Display menu setsaccording to layout Layout Menusets( ) ----------------- Determinelongest menubar (where length = total character width of all menubaritems for a given menubar plus a default inter-item spacing). Marklongest menubar as Done curLen = longest menubar length stepSize =sizing constant (e.g., 25 pixels) While all menubars are not Done {  Foreach undone menubar {    if (length menubar >= curLen − stepSize)    Grow current menubar to curLen by adding spacing between     menubaritems     Mark current menubar Done  }  curLen = curLen − stepSize; }Horizontally center all menubar rows relative to cursor positionVertically position hotbox utility “center row” at cursor position.rowCount = 1; For all active menubars {    if (menubar = “Common”) {    if (pane specific menubar is active)      vertically positionmenubar 2 rows above center row     else      vertically positionmenubar 1 row above center row    }    else if (menubar = pane specific)    vertically position menubar 1 row above center row    else {    vertically position row rowCount below center row     rowCount =rowCount + 1;    } } Handle Interaction( ) -------------------- Whiletrigger key down {  if (mouse key pressed)   if (mouse cursor overmenubar)    perform menu selection interaction for menubar item undercursor   else    perform interaction for the zone under cursor }

1. A display, comprising: the display implemented with a computer andincluding: a first active layer of menu zones arranged in a patternwhere a menu is displayed when a zone among the menu zones is activated;and a second active layer of GUI elements overlapping the zones where anaction takes place when the GUI element is activated while a cursor iswithin one of the zones which are activatable between the GUI elements.2. A display, comprising: the display implemented with a computer andincluding: a first active layer of menu zones arranged in a patternwhere a menu is displayed when a zone among the menu zones is activated;and a second active layer of GUI elements overlapping the zones wherethe GUI elements identify the menus available in a zone while a cursoris within one of the zones which are activatable between the GUIelements.
 3. A display, comprising: the display implemented with acomputer and including: a first active layer of menu zones arranged in apattern where a menu is displayed when a zone among the menu zones isactivated; and a second active layer of GUI elements overlapping thezones where the GUI elements identify the menus available in a zonewhile a cursor is within one of the zones which are activatable bothbetween the GUI elements and in the GUI elements.
 4. A display,comprising: the display implemented with a computer and including: afirst active layer of menu zones arranged in a pattern where a menu isdisplayed when a zone among the menu zones is activated; and a secondinactive layer of GUI elements overlapping the zones where the GUIelements identify the menus available in a zone while a cursor is withinone of the zones which are activatable between the GUI elements.
 5. Adisplay, comprising: the display implemented with a computer andincluding: a first active layer of menu zones arranged in a patternwhere a menu is displayed when a zone among the menu zones is activated;and a second layer of GUI elements overlapping the zones where some orall of the GUI elements are not visible when a menu zone is activatedwhile a cursor is within one of the zones which are activatable betweenthe GUI elements.
 6. A display as recited in claim 5, wherein at leastone of the zones comprises a menu bar.
 7. A display, comprising: thedisplay implemented with a computer and including: a first active layerof GUI elements with menu zones arranged in a pattern where a menu isdisplayed when a zone among the menu zones is activated; and a secondactive layer of menu zones overlapping the GUI elements where an actiontakes place when the GUI element is activated while a cursor is withinone of the zones which are activatable between the GUI elements.
 8. Adisplay, comprising: the display implemented with a computer andincluding: a first active layer of menu zones arranged in a patternwhere a menu is displayed when a zone among the menu zones is activated;and a second layer of GUI elements overlapping the zones where some orall of the GUI elements change when a menu zone is activated while acursor is within one of the zones which are activatable between the GUIelements.
 9. A display as recited in claim 8, wherein at least one ofthe zones comprises a menu bar.